You can use channel modes to make dozens of customizations to your channel. Last week, I talked about using channel modes to set a channel key, which works like a password for your channel. Today I’m going to talk about another way to keep your channel a private place: the channel modes +s and +p.

Secret vs. Private

There are two modes you can use to hide your channel: +s, for a secret channel; and +p, for a private channel.

Originally (that is, in earlier days of IRC), there was a difference between these two modes. On GeekShed, the two commands do the same thing. If you set your channel to +p or to +s, your channel will not show up:

in the channel listing that someone gets after using the /LIST command

in a /WHOIS list for a user who is in the channel (unless the person using the command is also in the secret channel)

Since the two commands do the same thing, you can only set one or the other.

Setting the Secret or Private Mode

To set the secret mode, use this command:

/mode #channel +s

In that command, replace "channel" with your #channel. For instance, for my super-secret channel, I used this command:

/mode #baconmylove +s

To set the private mode, use this command:

/mode #channel +p

For instance, I used this command:

/mode #baconmylove +p

Restrictions on the +s and +p Modes

If you set your channel to +s and then decide to set +p, the server will respond by removing the +s setting. You’d see something like this:

* tengrrl sets mode: +s
* tengrrl sets mode: +p-s

In the second line, the server set +p (adding the private setting), and -s (removing the secret setting). This is normal. Since the commands do the same thing, you only need one or the other (never both). As long as you have the channel set to +s or to +p, it will be hidden.

Removing the Secret or Private Mode

If you no longer want your channel to be hidden, you can remove the secret or private mode easily:

To remove the secret mode, use this command:

/mode #channel -s

To remove the private mode, use this command:

/mode #channel -p

Once you remove the setting, your channel will be visible to everyone on the network.

Two Tips on Using the Secret or Private Mode

Remember that even though your channel is hidden, the people you ask to join you in the channel can tell others about it. Only invite people to join your channel if you trust them to maintain your privacy. If you cannot trust someone not to tell others about the space, don’t ask them to join your channel.

Any moderator (half-ops, ops, and admins) on your channel can change the channel mode. Don’t add someone as a moderator in the channel if you cannot trust that person to leave the channel with the settings you want.

Every now and then, a question that arises in #help is if people can see the IP address of another individual. Since GeekShed encrypt users’ IP addresses and hostmasks the short answer is no, other people can not see your IP address.

The long answer is the following:

The only people that can see a user’s IP address is the user, and network staff. Anyone else will see an encrypted version of the IP address, or an encrypted version of the hostname if the IP address was able to be resolved.

Examples:

Instead of seeing host127-68-124-93.range127-124.virginmedia.com, other users will see protectedhost-A8B9B24A.range127-124.virginmedia.com

Instead of seeing 134.65.154.12, other users will see AD171E0.223C44F1.789AD83A.IP

Some users claim that they are able to see the IP address of other users. This is incorrect. What they are seeing is the IP address of the page they see when they try to visit a domain that does not resolve.

Examples:

If they claim to know the IP address of a staff member, with the geekshed.net vhost, the IP they really see if that of the server the geekshed.net website resides on.

If a user of OpenDNS claims to know the IP address of the virginmedia user (from the previous example), what they will really see is 208.69.36.132, which actually resolves to hit-nxdomain.opendns.com.

Some clients may resolve the “primary” domain name itself, in which case the user would see 212.250.162.12 for virginmedia.com

Disclaimer: this all goes out the window if the user unsets usermode x, which is the mode that hides their IP address/hostmask. This mode is set by default on connect and is removed either by doing “/umode2 -x” or “/hs off”. If umode x ever gets unset it can be turned back on with “/umode2 +x”